Dennis Nett/The Post-StandardGeorgetown guard Austin Freeman listens to questions at media day for Big East men's basketball on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden.

New York — Austin Freeman broke into a wide smile. He had just been asked how nervous he was moments earlier, when Big East commissioner John Marinatto introduced him to the crowd of reporters, Big East players and coaches who gathered in Madison Square Garden for the conference’s annual media day.

“Very nervous,” he said. “I’m not going to lie.”

Freeman, the Georgetown guard who averaged 16.5 points (19.5 in Big East play) and shot 44 percent from 3-point range (52 percent in league games) last season, was named the conference’s preseason player-of-the-year. And for the first time in the history of Big East media day, a player was elected by league coaches and administrators to deliver a speech to reporters detailing what it meant to play in the conference.

Freeman was that anointed player. He walked slowly down a set of carpeted steps in the theater-like setting that served as this year’s backdrop for media day. He wore a black suit, black shirt and black tie. Marinatto joked that Freeman had prepared a speech of 20 minutes.

Freeman gripped the dais, thanked a lot of people and discussed the competitive virtues of the league. He read from a single sheet of paper, from a text he prepared a day earlier. And he was visibly relieved when he stepped away from the podium, after this final message:

“I wish all of you the best this season. Except, of course, when you play the Hoyas.”

Freeman eventually settled into his seat beneath the Georgetown banner so reporters could quiz him about the 2010-11 season. He was an all-Big East second team pick last year. He led all Big East guards in field-goal percentage (52.5 percent) and was fourth in the league in free throw shooting at 85.6 percent.

For that, he was named the league’s best returning player.

“It’s an honor. I’m happy,” he said, “but it really only matters what happens at the end of the year. I know I’m going to have a target on my back. So I have to be prepared for it, because everybody is going to try to come after me. It’s something I’ve prepared for. I’ve worked at it all summer, so I’m pretty much ready.”

His all-black attire had a slimming effect. Freeman is listed at 6-foot-3 ½ and 227 pounds. He inhabits the kind of rugged frame that might suggest a certain lack of quickness.

Freeman said he shed 11 pounds over the summer in an attempt to streamline his body and improve his strength, his lateral quickness, his conditioning. Georgetown coach John Thompson III, he said, assured Freeman and fellow backcourt mates Chris Wright and Jason Clark that this year’s Hoyas would rely heavily on their experienced group of guards.

Syracuse University guard Scoop Jardine has known Freeman since high school. Freeman, who played for DeMatha High School in Maryland, competed against Jardine and Rick Jackson, who were teammates at Neumann-Goretti in Philadelphia. Jardine claims he scored 40 points against the Freeman-led DeMatha team in one game. (“And we beat ‘em. Check the stats,” Jardine said.)

“He’s a competitor. He can shoot the ball. He’s really a student of the game, he understands the game,” Jardine said. “He’s a friend of mine and I’m just happy for him. It’s an honor for him to get preseason player-of-the-year honors. For what he’s accomplished at Georgetown, it’s only right for him to get acknowledged for what he’s done.”